The OFFICIAL let's make Erick's M30 stop overheating thread

[Erick]

I'm not with the patience to do the thermostat tonight. I'll try it out tomm when the engine is nice and cold. I had to drive the car a bit today to get tires mounted.

[wildstoats]

How is your fan setup? I was having similar overheating issues until I switched to a Spal that has the rubber gasket that seals up to the radiator. While I was diagnosing the overheating problems I noticed that closing in area between the core support and the radiator with 100 mph tape got me about 75% of the way to a cool running engine. Just out of curiosity how is your fan setup?

[Erick]

My fan setup isn't anything out of this world in terms of how it's put together. I am using a SPAL 16" pusher fan, rated at 2760cfm. I don't have the said rubber gasket on my setup though.

The fan is zip tied to the radiator, so it sits completely flush with it (I run the zip ties through the radiator and back, zipping it back up front where the fan is).

[slammin.e28]

You're not losing coolant/water/whatever at all??

[Erick]

Nope, nothing at all. Every time we check the coolant level, all is good.

[slammin.e28]

Well....I'm stumped. If you had a cracked head/block the coolant would be seeping into the combustion chamber, thus you would lose it, even if it was a small crack. Only thing I can guess is air in the system somewhere or it's not circulating i.e. water pump problem. I know we've been there before though.

I guess I'll just sit back and wait for a remedy. Seems like you've tried everything.

Best of luck!
Jeff.

[LowR3V'in]

Have the thermostat in backwards?
Last idea is take it out and see if it still overheats.

My needle dropped down into the blue after acouple minutes on the freeway.
at least that says the radiator works? Are you using 100% coolant?

Crazy problem. :(

[bataangpinoy]

maybe theres some shit in the coolant passages on the motor itself impeding flow?

[wildstoats]

My fan setup isn't anything out of this world in terms of how it's put together. I am using a SPAL 16" pusher fan, rated at 2760cfm. I don't have the said rubber gasket on my setup though.

The fan is zip tied to the radiator, so it sits completely flush with it (I run the zip ties through the radiator and back, zipping it back up front where the fan is).

Gotcha, so count that out. Such a jacked up issue dude. It seems like the only thing you haven't checked are the actual coolant passages themselves, which seems like a stretch but at this point who knows.

[Erick]

Well, it sounds unlikely mainly because we did a coolant flush. Even if the passages were remotely blocked, I figure we'd see some crud coming out from where the blockage has been building up.

Two nights before doing the coolant flush, we did one in an M20, and you could clearly see the garbage coming out. The water coming out of the M30 was as clear as it went in.

So I'm not saying it's not a blocked passage, but I highly doubt it.

[Erick]

Thermostat is off, did a quick bleed, and I'm off to try it out at the track.

Videos will follow I'm sure. Bringing plenty of extra water.

[lashtx]

So I pulled my M42 out today as it had sort started acting weird and I am doing the M30 swap as well. When I pulled the exhaust off I noticed coolant leaking inside the header. Never came out on the ground. Just a lot of white smoke.

[Erick]

So I took the car out drifting today, no thermostat.

Pretty much ran as it always has, overheating really easily. I'm starting to lean towards the fan, which is something I've never really tested (besides the fact that it's on), but I really have no way to measure how much air it's pushing.

Fun day drifting... although it sucks I had to drive off the track and drive for two miles on the highway to cool the car down before I was able to cool the car down enough to make another run.

[Farbin Kaiber]

^ Make a cardboard shroud to test, you can take a few foot section of 1x2 wood, and make a square the size of the core, then ziptie the fan to the cardboard, if that works, they you already have a "buck" to fabricate a fan shroud on a bender really quick and easy.

[ForcedFirebird]

^ Make a cardboard shroud to test, you can take a few foot section of 1x2 wood, and make a square the size of the core, then ziptie the fan to the cardboard, if that works, they you already have a "buck" to fabricate a fan shroud on a bender really quick and easy.

Excuse the internet enthusiasm, but...

Brilliant!